Amazon Delivery Drones

Yes, It's Real: Amazon Wants To Deliver By Drone

Five years from now, you just might be able to get your Cyber Monday purchases delivered right to your doorstep like a pizza — in 30 minutes or less.

In the latest jaw-dropping peek into our future, CBS’s 60 Minutes unveiled the Amazon Prime Air drone — an electric-powered “octacopter” that CEO Jeff Bezos said could be ready to drop off your freshly ordered packages as soon as 2018.

As part of the plan, these octacopters would be flying in from Amazon's massive “fulfillment centers”— apparently the size of 20 football fields — located in every metropolitan area. Once the octacopters are loaded up with their cargo, GPS coordinates are punched in and the copter can go on its way. Presently, the fulfillment centers load up trucks to deliver the products to where they need to go, but Bezos says drones would be a lot quicker and more environmentally friendly.

The project’s success will hinge on a Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) ruling set to take place in 2015 that would allow or prohibit the use of commercial drones like the Amazon Prime Air. Bezos and company will have to prove to the FAA that the drones won’t crash into high skyscrapers in a city like New York — and that they also won’t plop on your neighbor’s head before landing on your doorstep.

While drones are infamous for their use in modern warfare, their use is being experimented with in all aspects of our society, from agricultural to security to delivery. In China, a UFO sighting turned heads this July until it was proven that the InCake Bakery was experimenting with a drone to deliver a fresh “pie in the sky,” as the Telegraph called it. This summer, Domino's Pizza also featured a video of a “DomiCopter” to deliver pies of their own, but that was just a stunt and not legal in the US — yet.

Of course, since current drone technology is only built to carry the load of a camera — not two large meat-lover's pizzas — Bezos' proposal would limit drone deliveries to purchases under 5 pounds made by buyers within 10 miles of a fulfillment center.

Still, while five years from now might be overly optimistic for commercial deliveries, with the way interest in drones is advancing, it’s likely we’ll be seeing tiny delivery-copters fly around our neighborhoods sooner than later.

And judging by the way things seem to be going with technological innovation lately, our fridges and kitchen tables will be giant tablets, our watches will double as smartphones and all our food will be either 3D-printed or in liquid form.